Seasons (DAM)
Seasons was a term used by the Old Faith mages during the Dark Ages, to collectively describe the four Pillars of their magick: with Autumn granting powers of wisdom and fruition; Winter granting powers of death and despair; Spring granting powers of life and creation; and Summer granting powers of fire and passion. Overview The Pillars for Old Faith mysticism are the four Seasons of the year. A microcosm of life itself, the year is born, waxes, wanes and, finally, dies. This natural progression of genesis, growth and termination is the very essence of the Old Faith. Nature knows both the gentle caress of Spring and the harsh fury of Winter. So, too, must all witch-wise folk be open to Nature the provider and Nature the destroyer. All the spells of this faith fall under the symbolic purviews of the Seasons. Autumn, for ex ample, is a time of wisdom and maturity, Summer of passion and vibrancy. Sample Foci: Blood, chanting, ordeals 'Autumn' (Powers of Wisdom and Fruition) Despite setting the trees ablaze with shades of red and gold, Autumn is the season that cools the blood, beckoning farmers to their harvests and calling beasts to prepare for the coming snows. It is the time of age and wisdom, when that which is planned comes to fruition. Likewise, as the leaf withers on the branch, it is a time for conserving strength and fortifying against coming hardship. The dead grows close to the land of the living during this season, as the Earth itself prepares to die. *• At this level of knowledge, the witch can detect the presence of maturity and ripeness in a thing, its readiness for harvest. It is possible to sense wisdom in words or in a person (such as the telltale ring of prophecy), or co perceive when a woman will give birth to the child she carries. Likewise, one can see when a thing is ready to begin its twilight time, whether that thing is an animal, an idea or an institution. *• • The priestess of the Old Faith can calm extant emotions with her magic and can make simple life (plants or insects, for example) or simple idea:s (such as the blacksmith's son's idle thoughts of asking the shepherd's daughter to marry him) mature and, if appropriate, bear fruit. Also, she may gather up her energies and guard herself against mystic assaults directed at her pattern (adding successes to Stamina for the purposes of soaking direct pattern attacks). *• • • With the power of Autumn, the keeper of the Living Faith can stymie change, slowing time(reducing a subject to one action for a number of turns equal to successes rolled, for example) or the proliferation of ideas. The druid may sculpt the Earth, which draws its energy inward during this Season, controlling its shape and causing it to flow, at will. also, as this is a changing time, a mystic time, a time of crossing over, he can move into the Penumbra at crossroads and other between-places. He can protect living patterns, bolstering their powers to resist (adding one dot of Stamina per success). *• • • • The witch may now strike at the life of another directly with Autumn magics, just as the farmer's scythe fells his grain and trees yield up their leaves in a fiery rain (inflicting one Health Level of aggravated damage per success on a simple spell) Brashness may be transformed into patience and a fool might be made to rethink his plans, forsaking them for a wiser course of action. Also, the witch may evolve nonliving things or concepts into their final form (turning ambition into a desire for conquest, a felled tree to dry timber or coal and iron into steel). *• • • • • The witch may afflict the body of a living being with age (two years per success) and can create wisdom and understanding (adding one dot to Intelligence per success). She can simulate the land's final sigh as it gives up its life to make way for Winter, creating failure in a venture (subtracting her successes on a simple spell from those scored by another, to a minimum of zero; if the subject's roll is magical, however, she must expend a point of both Willpower and Quintessence to do so). By summoning up the power of contemplation, the witch can contact the minds of others directly or can, with great effort, bring anew place of power into being (creating cray after an extended spell limited to no more than 10 rolls, one roll per day; every 10 successes equals one level of the new cray) Specialties: Contemplation, Creating Calm, Harvesting, Wisdom; Sample Foci: Ashes from a quenched fire, fallen leaves, a lock of newly-ctr red or brown or golden hair, scythe, a sheaf of wheat, soil, stones 'Spring' (Powers of Life and Creation) The time of renewal, rebirth and innocence, Spring is the essence of youth, vitality and virility. As the land shakes off tts icy mantle and green begins to stir, at first showing through and then displacing the white, the Earth reawakens. Birds unheard for months cry out to the warming sun and the crcarures of nature emerge from Winter dens, bringing with them newborn progeny. It is a time of intuition and impulse, of love and laughter. Spring rains wash away the dreary shadow of the previous Jays and infuse the soil with life-giving power. *• The practitioner of the Old Faith can see the life in things and their potential. She can sense the first stirring of an unborn child, feel the flesh knitting in a healing wound (revealing how many Health levels of damage remain in a subject), can perceive the bond between young lovers, no matter how well they try to conceal it. She sees the blossoming of new ideas, friendships and possibilities. *• • The mystic now discovers how to insinuate the properties of Spring into himself and, in a smaller way, others. He can mend his own hurts (healing two I lealth Levels of bashing damage or one lethal per success), make simple life (such as plants and animals) to grow hale and strong, and bring on wakefulness or the suggestion of fresh perspective. By summoning up a child's wonder with the first bloom of Spring, he can add one per success to Awareness die pools on a simple spell. *• • • The wind, element of motion and action, comes to the witch's call. She can mend the hurts of greater beasts, humans included (healing them as per the capabilities conferred by the previous level); can restore even terrible damage to her own being (healing one Health Level of aggravated damage per success); and can exert control over the gentler emotions, such as love, compassion, appreciation and friendliness. She can also impart supernatural swifmess and grace (one dot of Dexterity or Appearance per success) and is able to move another to sudden action or impulsive behavior. *• • • • The mystic gives birth to ideas that grow and spread among ochers (implanting a thought or concept that spreads with supernatural case, alacrity and force). She can feed energy into others' spells, fueling or expanding them (addling one success per success rolled to another person's spell that is cast at char time). She may walk physically into the otherworldly realms of the Fae and can erode the stasis of the Gaunclct naturally, allowing trait between multiple worlds (subtracting one from the Gauntlet per success). The hurts ofothers, no matter how grievous, can be undone (allowing the mage to heal aggravated d.unage for other as he could for herself with the previous level). *• • • • • Life itself is in the witch's hands. She can restore the souls of the recently dead to thetr bodies (only those who died within one minute per level of the witch's Spontaneity score; the arisen person has one Health Level and is barely conscious) and can create living beings (though they lack minds and souls, such forms still possess instinct:,). Even the improbable may be given genesis (oak trees in the desert, conversion to the Old Ways in the Papal City, etc.), though such changes are not likely to rake root and persist unless they are tended and maintained by careful use of mystic and mundane incentives. Specialties: Creating New Ideas, Fair Folk, Healing, Uncontrolled Change, Wind; Sample Foci: Breath and breathing, clear water, incense, salves, saplings or other newly-bloomed flowers or plants, sex or sensuality 'Summer' (Powers of Fire and Passion) As the sun bums hot overhead, Summer is the season of passions. The blood courses with lust and the thrill of battle. Summer brings storm that rends the night sky with bright fire and batters the land with furious downpours. Choices are made swiftly, for there is always tomorrow. People are quick to take offense, chafed by the heat and the stillness of the daytime air. Summer magic is undertaken swiftly and with conviction, though it might lack wisdom. It is bold and strong, the most vigorous of Seasons. It is a time of fire and fury, a time saturated with the glorious vitality of the prime of life. Sample Foci: Daggers or other bladed weapon, dance, fire, lust or wrath, physical contact (preferably skin-to-skin) Specialties: Combat, Fire, inciting Wrath , Quintessence, Raw Force 'Winter' (Powers of Death and Despair) This is the dying time, when claws of frost scour the Earth, flaying man and beast alike and field and forest as well. Winter is the season that kills, when day is short and night stretches on. A thick blanket of white, like a grave shroud, is cast upon all things. It is a time of secrets, fear and separation. Folks gather close, around life-giving fires, huddling against the cold and the dark. Winter magic may be subtle, like the stillness of a frozen pond by night, or obvious, like a blizzard come to claim a heavy toll of the living. But always it is tinged by energies of death, dissolution, and finality. Sample Foci: Altar, battering or bludgeoning implements, grave dirt, or bodily remains, sacrifice (animal or possibly human), water (especially snow or ice) Specialties: Destroying Ideas, Souls, Stifling Physical Change, Water References DAM: Dark Ages: Mage Rulebook, p. 115-118 Category:Dark Ages: Mage